198 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
Contents for June, 1869. 
Bee Notes—By M. Quinby.207 
Boys’ and Girls' Columns—Stick to the Plow and the 
Plane—How Noah's Animals are Made—Appear¬ 
ances Against Him : The Truth in His Favor—Prai¬ 
rie Life for Invalid Girls—Many a Slip Between the 
Cup and the Lip—Items—New Puzzles to be An¬ 
swered.6 Illustrations. .223-224 
Buds out of Place. Illustrated ..217 
Butter Making.207 
Cedar of Lebanon. 218 
Chinese Yam. 220 
Covers for Wells. Illustrated.. 213 
Currants.219 
Doors for Manure Cellars.2 Illustrations. 212 
Ducks—Rouens—Aylesburys.2 Illustrations.. 209 
Farmers and Their Hired Men. 213 
Farm Sleds for Winter and Summer. .3 Illustrations. 212 
Farm Work for June.198 
Fish—The Pondfish or Sunfish. Illustrated. .210 
Fish—The Ruddy Bass or White Perch.. .Illustrated.. 216 
Flower Garden and Lawn in June. 199 
Fruit Garden in June.199 
Geraniums and Pelargoniums.2 Illustrations ..220 
Green house and Window Plants in June.200 
Grinding and Cooking Food for Hogs.210 
Gypsum or Plaster as Manure. 215 
Household Department—A Chip of the Old Block—The 
Table—Order and Ornament—Household Talks by 
Aunt Hattie—Bottling Fruit—To Bottle Strawber¬ 
ries—Pickled Walnuts—Molasses Cake—Cocoanut 
Cake—Lamp Brackets, Useful and Ornamental- 
Amusements for Children—Recipes—To Make Tea— 
Boiled Brown Bread—Mary James’ Cracker Pud¬ 
ding—Pudding Sauce Wanted — Summer Drink- 
Popping Corn—Cream Batter Pudding. .7 Ulus. 221-222 
How to Make a Ladder. Illustrated ...215 
Hydrangeas. Illustrated.. 217 
Kitchen Garden in June.. .. . .199 
Lima Beans .217 
Market Reports. 202 
Mole Traps ...2 Illustrations. .218 
Notes from the Pines..218 
Orchard and Nursery in June. ...199 
Outlets for Duck Ponds. Illustrated ..215 
Pigeon Houses.7 Illustrations.. 213-214 
Plants Growing Upon Insects. Illustrated . .220 
Plowing with a Single Line.:.214 
Premium's. 200 
Safflower or “ Saffron ”. : . Illustrated .. 217 
Scale Lice. 219 
Sheep—Experiments in Feeding.20S 
Soiling Cattle.. ...214 
Tail-boards of Wagons.3 Illustrations . 214 
Timber—The Wanton Destruction of .219 
Training Raspberries.3 Illustrations. .219 
Use and Abuse of Barn-yards.207 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 66—The Ohio 
Premium Corn Crop—Draining—Plows and Plow¬ 
ing—Summer Fallows—Plowing Under Crops..210-211 
Working Bulls.208 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, JUNE, 1S69. 
What a glorious month June is ! We have much 
more of sunshine than in any other month, and 
this is usually accompanied by heat and moisture 
in such degrees, that the whole country has an at¬ 
mosphere like a green-house, and vegetation of all 
kinds makes its most rapid growths. The chilly 
days and cold nights of May have past; the back¬ 
ward corn now makes amends for its tardy develop¬ 
ment, loses the sickly yellow hue, and puts on the 
bright, green of health. • Wheat pushes up its 
bearded ears, and the clover heads make the mead¬ 
ows rosy. Long dormant seeds are warmed to 
life, and plants spring up unbidden wherever the 
fresh mould has been stirred. The pastures are in 
their best condition, and the distended udders, full 
pails, thick cream, and golden butter, make us 
glad. Fruits are ripening, and fresh vegetables ap¬ 
pear in increasing variety upon the table. It is the 
month of Roses, and with the queen of flowere 
comes a charming throng bearing, some chalices of 
beauty, others vials of odors, to crown with radi¬ 
ance and fragrance the measure of the month. 
June is no play-time. Work, hard work, is the 
order of the day. All this energy of Nature must 
be directed, checked, taken advantage of, utilized. 
If corn grows, so will weeds. Every additional 
pound of milk makes more work for us in the 
dairy. In almost every department the farmer 
may have more work than he can do, and to ac¬ 
complish well the most important, all the labor 
must be thoroughly systematized. 
Hints About Work. 
Corn .—Early varieties will mature if planted the 
first week in June in all ordinary seasons, and as 
there are often drawbacks and liinderances, every 
farmer should have some early corn which he can 
plant if necessary. Large crops of even very small 
kinds may be secured if well manured and planted 
close enough. With the small kinds of corn we 
are apt to err in planting too far apart, just as with 
the large sorts we fail in the opposite way. The 
secret of easy, successful corn culture is allowing 
no weeds to grow—at least much beyond the seed 
leaf—before the corn is so large that horse cultiva¬ 
tion is prevented. Weeds are killed both by stir¬ 
ring the soil in dry weather and by burying them. 
Corn-fodder .—Corn may be sown up to the middle 
of July, or even later; and that which is not needed 
for green fodder should be cut and cured for win¬ 
ter use before it begins to turn yellow. 
be cut early, before the outside of the sorghum 
or the tough seed envelops of the Hungarian mil¬ 
let are hard, as it is from these indigestible sub¬ 
stances that harm arises, if it comes at all. 
Grass .—-It is often a question which meadow to 
mow first. Usually, we prefer to cut that first 
which is newest seeded, because the grass and 
clover will start up at once, and no harm will result 
to the roots should a drought come on next month 
Where there are a great many daisies, they must 
be cut when just coming into blossom. This not 
only destroys many seeds, but the daisies make 
very good hay; whereas, if cutting be delayed, in 
a very short time they are quite worthless, and 
every seed is ripened. Orchard grass and June 
grass precede Timothy, and accompany clover in 
time of fitness to cut. Red-top and grasses of its 
kindred are later, and fields where red-top is in ex¬ 
cess are usually best left until the last. It is much 
better to cut grass a little too soon than too late. 
The bay is a little lighter, but it is all eaten ; other¬ 
wise, the manure heap is increased at the expense 
of the mow. The experiences o! last summer 
warn us to provide hay caps; and those who were 
obliged to get in their hay before it was dried to 
death, according to custom, may also have learned 
a lesson not to overdry hay. That cured as much 
as possible in the cock is sweetest and best. 
Pastures.—Be careful not to overstock those pas¬ 
tures depended upon for the summer. Top-dress¬ 
ings of bone-dust, guano, ashes, gypsum, super¬ 
phosphate, or fish manure, will tell at once. 
Brush Pasticres , or those ou which bushes of vari¬ 
ous kinds are gradually encroaching, may be nearly 
cleared in one or two seasons by feeding down with 
sheep. Cut the brush witli a bush-hook, or scythe, 
aud soon after turn the sheep in. They will gnaw 
down the succulent young growth, kill the roots of 
the bushes, aud thrive upon the diet. It is best, 
however, to decidedly overstock the pasture for the 
most thorough work, the animals being kept on but 
a few days at a time through the hot season. 
Potatoes. —Top-dress with gypsum, or gypsum 
and ashes. Use the horse hoe as often as the soil 
is compacted by heavy rains, very dry, or weedy, 
until the vines would be injured by the operation ; 
then cleau up between the rows with a Share’s 
liorse-boe, or other similar double-mould-board af¬ 
fair, and leave them, except as you go through, fre¬ 
quently, if necessary, to hand-pull the weeds. 
Peas sowed after the 10th of June, (Lat. 41°,) will 
bo* less productive, but not attacked by the weevil. 
Tobacco .—Water seed-beds with dilute manure 
water. Prick out crowded plants, so as to make 
them grow stocky. Prepare the field to be ready 
for transplanting by the 20th, or before. 
INDEX TO “BASKET” 
About Engravings.202 
AgT Colleges.204 
Ag’l Papers a Power.204 
Am. Dairymen’s Ass’n. .206 
Asparagus.204 
Beet Sugar.203 
Best Roots for Cows.203 
Best’s Tye e I n v i go rat o r.. 203 
Bones, What to Do with..206 
Books.205 
Briers, To Kill.205 
Cant-hook for Stones. At206 
Chip Manure.204 
Cistern, Trouble with...206 
Concrete Houses.201 
Cut-Worms.203 
Disinfecting Powders.. .206 
Draining a Garden.203 
Drooling Cows.204 
Fishing in Am. Waters. .203 
Gas house Lime.205 
Grubs with Fungi.203 
Gun Barrels Busting.206 
How Much Lime?.205 
Kicking Cows.206 
Lamp Wicks.203 
Leaky Teats in Cows... .203 
Lice on Honeysuckles.. .203 
Lime ns Manure... 206 
Logging .204 
Maple Sugar. .202 
Moshaniibck Potato.203 
Missisquoi Water. 204 
Money. How to Send_202 
Muck-Wliat is it?.204 
Name the State.206 
Naomi Raspberry.203 
Native Countries, Plants.203 
N Y. State Fair.205 
N. W. Hedge Asso’n.203 
Not “ Hog Cholera.”_206 
OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Nutmegs in-Cal. 204 
Oats or Corn.206 
“ On a Run-down Farm.”205 
Percheron Horses, More.206 
Plowing Heavy Land.... 205 
Plums..203 
Poke-weed Again. 203 
Potatoes and Leaves.205 
Potatoes in N. C. 205 
Potatoes, Drained Land..206 
Potatoes upon Sod.202 
Potato Queries.203 
Poultry for Market.205 
Poultry Houses.203 
Pres’t. Wi filer Strawbcrry202 
Price of Potatoes.203 
Prolapsus Uteri in Cows..206 
Refuse Glue.203 
Resources of the Counlry206 
Rotation for Maryland.. .205 
Rotation for Virginia_206 
Salt &Waterin Pastures.206 
Salt Muck. 206 
Scale Louse.203 
St. Pctersfiurgli Hor.Con.203 
Secret Nests.201! 
Seedling Grapes.202 
Sensible.20t 
Shells, Book oil.’.. .205 
Sundry Humbugs.202 
Superpbos. vs. Guano.. .205 
Sweet Corn.201 
Texas Fever.204 
Trailing Arbutus.203 
Trial of Mowers, etc.204 
Trichina.204 
Water in Drains.205 
Weight of Ducks.204 
Wheat after Oats.204 
Wheat, Pedigree.205 
Worms on Vines.203 
Boots .—It is not too late for fair crops of man¬ 
gels, carrots, or parsnips. They should be sowu as 
early in the month as possible. Sowing Swedish 
turnips (ruta-bagas), is usually %et down for the 
20th of June. They may be sown either before or 
after that, as convenient. Use one or two barrels 
of good superphosphate to the acre in the drill, 
according to the condition of the soil. The drills 
should not be less than two feet apart. Farmers 
ought to put in more roots, and ruta-bagas are the 
best to begin with. They are easily sold at a good 
price in our large markets, and are invaluable 
for cows, hogs, and sheep, in winter and spring. 
Cabbages .—Sow seed for main crop. They are 
equal or superior to roots as feed for animals, and 
succeed well, especially upon stiff or clayey soils. 
Green manure crops .—Clover is the best. Plow 
it under in full blossom. Buckwheat maybe sown 
at any time, and if quickened by 100 or 200 lbs. of 
guano to the acre, may be plowed in in time to sow 
and turn under a second crop before frost, even on 
very poor land. Corn is one of the best crops for 
green manuring, though awkward to plow under. 
Sow in drills a foot apart, or broadcast, and when 
it, tassels out, roll or drag it fiat with the rows if 
drilled, and turn it, in as it is laid with a large plow. 
Fodder crops .— Besides corn for fodder, sorghum, 
millet, and Hungarian grass, offer useful substitutes 
for hay, or for feeding dry. They should, however, 
Implements .—Have a grindstone well hung, to be 
run by the foot. Keep axes, hoes, mattocks, 
spades, and all earth cutting tools, whether for the 
garden or the field, sharp all the time. Buy the 
best and lightest steel tools, and the most improved 
and superior implements of all kinds. Keep them 
housed. See description of tool-sled on page 212, 
and make one for moving implements to and from 
the field. Attend to repairs as soon as they are in 
the least degree needed. “ A stitch in time,” ete. 
Weeds .—Destroy while in the seed leaf, if possi¬ 
ble. Mow those which grow rank in the fence 
rows and elsewhere. Repeated mowings will kill 
most, and cutting off at the ground will finish al¬ 
most every one in one season. Even Canada this¬ 
tles will succumb after four or five cuttings at the 
surface of the ground, aud on some soils with less. 
Poultry. —Give young chickens free range of the 
garden, and feed well. They will take many in¬ 
sects. Even chickens for early marketing should 
not be confined. They must he well fed. Give 
them some meat, like pork scraps, cut line, and 
soaked over night, aud keep them growing fast. 
Confine old ducks, not needed as breeders, as soon 
as they stop laying, and give them fattening food. 
They will never be tenderer than if fatted and 
eaten at once, and that is saying little enough. 
Swine.—Young pigs are useful iu an orchard. 
Keep store pigs in pens, working over and tramp- 
